Pink Floyd: How'd They Do That?

akg414 · Post by **akg414** » Fri May 04, 2007 7:33 am

In my opinion, Floyd are one the best examples of creativity in the studio.

To get that "whale" sound FX during the song Echoes, David Gilmour ran his Wha-wha pedal in reverse. From the guitar, he plugs into the OUTPUT of the Wha, and from the INPUT of the wha, you connect to your amp.

And speaking of this sound, during the song "Is There Anybody Out There (from The Wall), at 0:43 in, after Roger says, "is there anybody out there" - you can hear this "Whale" sound FX taken from Echoes.

On the song Time (dark Side Of The Moon), that "bick-ooo, bick-ooo, bick-ooo" sounding loop in the begining of the song, is Roger Waters pressing his string on his bass against the pickup-magnet and releasing it.

Although it's hard to hear or notice, during the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond, there is a person playing a professional version of a wine-glass with water in it. (when you fill a glass with water and rub your finger on the rim to produce a tone)

Does anyone else know of any cool studio tricks that Floyd did?

wedge · Post by **wedge** » Fri May 04, 2007 10:45 am

Rent and/or buy the DVD Greatest Albums Dark Side of the Moon, produced by VH1, and you'll learn a few more, such as the tape loop at the beginning of Money that if I remember correctly, Roger Waters created at home with his own reel to reel, then took it into the studio, not knowing how it would be used. Once they set it up, they realized that it created an odd time signature, and they went with it, to develop the song...

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri May 04, 2007 10:59 am

I'd forgotten about that wah-wah trick. you can get some cool sound that way. I'm gonna have to use that on something soon here.

Electricide · Post by **Electricide** » Fri May 04, 2007 2:30 pm

dwlb wrote:I'd forgotten about that wah-wah trick. you can get some cool sound that way. I'm gonna have to use that on something soon here.

please be sure to use it with ebow

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri May 04, 2007 2:49 pm

Electricide wrote:
dwlb wrote:I'd forgotten about that wah-wah trick. you can get some cool sound that way. I'm gonna have to use that on something soon here.
please be sure to use it with ebow

No, the eBow is locked up, I'd been using it far too much.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Fri May 04, 2007 7:44 pm

Gilmour later (around the time of the concerts for The Wall?) had Pete Cornish modify the wah on his Animals-era pedalboard with a toe-activated rocker switch to switch the ins and outs so he didn't have to repatch for this effect.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Fri May 04, 2007 7:56 pm

oh, and word has it that Syd Barrett rolled ball bearings down the fingerboard of his Telecaster to get that *beww-beww-beww!" sound at the beginning of "Lucifer Sam".

dunno if that's true, tho.

i'm curious about how some of Richard Wright's keyboard sounds were done, actually.

like that Shepard tone rising choir effect at the end of "Echoes", just creative overdubs of stock Mellotron tapes or...?

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Sat May 05, 2007 6:31 pm

bradjacob wrote:Although it's hard to hear or notice, during the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond, there is a person playing a professional version of a wine-glass with water in it. (when you fill a glass with water and rub your finger on the rim to produce a tone)

It's not hard to hear or notice. Most people think it's just synth strings, but it is in fact glass harmonium overdubbed several times.

I love the backwards masking on The Wall. "Congratulations. You have discovered the secret message. Send your answer to Old Pink, care of the funny farm, Chalfront." Or "If you can hear this, you're dying" on Dark Side, which isn't backwards, but just really quiet.

Nice Mason's roto toms on the beginning of "Time" were tuned to the chords in the intro and punched in every couple of measures. I think that's pretty excellent. Pretty much every track on that record also went through a Kepex, sometimes more than once. It's a crime that Alan Parsons didn't get to do the re-issue mixes from the original multi-tracks. He was totally robbed.

David Gilmour rented out the LA Civic Arena and it's in-house PA system to record the guitar on "Sorrow."

There's LOTS of great info on Floyd's recordings. I'd love to hear the "found objects" stuff that they bailed on.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Sat May 05, 2007 7:22 pm

cgarges wrote:I'd love to hear the "found objects" stuff that they bailed on.

the descriptions i've read make it sound like "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" in an office supply store, except with actual lyrics.

even if that's true, i'd still buy a copy.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Sun May 06, 2007 8:05 am

cgarges wrote: David Gilmour rented out the LA Civic Arena and it's in-house PA system to record the guitar on "Sorrow."

pffft. strictly amateur hour. i'm totally renting the entire grand canyon for the guitar solos on MY record.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Sun May 06, 2007 8:11 am

RefD wrote:the descriptions i've read make it sound like "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" in an office supply store, except with actual lyrics.

That's interesting. I've never read too many descriptions of what it sounded like, just some of the procedures. I dind't realize they got as far has having lyrics for any of it. Man, now I really want to hear it!

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Sun May 06, 2007 8:17 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:pffft. strictly amateur hour. i'm totally renting the entire grand canyon for the guitar solos on MY record.

You should totally do that. Maybe see if you can play on top of that overlook that's being built on Native American land. Line up a wall of Marshal 4x12s across the entire thing and then be sure to get a helicopter fly-by shot of it for the video.

Eh, The Darkness have probably already done it.

"Songbird" on Fleetwood Mac's Rumours was recorded at the Zellerback Auditorium at UC Berkley. And there was that Tool album where they threw the guitar off a cliff while plugged into a Marshall at the top and recorded that.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

cleantone · Post by **cleantone** » Sun May 06, 2007 1:40 pm

good stuff. nice post...

that "bick-ooo, bick-ooo, bick-ooo" sounding loop in the begining of the song, is Roger Waters pressing his string on his bass against the pickup-magnet and releasing it.

Syd was doing that in 66' too.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Sun May 06, 2007 5:15 pm

cgarges wrote: Line up a wall of Marshal 4x12s across the entire thing and then be sure to get a helicopter fly-by shot of it for the video.

i'll suspend the marshalls FROM a bunch of helicoptors and have them fly through the canyon in various patterns around the mics. this is going to be the best guitar solo ever.

*tentatively plucks out a mostly correct blues scale, brows furrowed in concentration*

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Mon May 07, 2007 6:15 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:this is going to be the best guitar solo ever.

Agreed.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

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